Computer scientists suggest new spin on origins of evolvability

Monday, April 29, 2013

Scientists have long observed that species seem to have become increasingly capable of evolving in response to changes in the environment. But computer science researchers now say that the popular explanation of competition to survive in nature may not actually be necessary for evolvability to increase.

In a paper published this week in PLOS ONE, the researchers report that evolvability can increase over generations regardless of whether species are competing for food, habitat or other factors.

Using a simulated model they designed to mimic how organisms evolve, the researchers saw increasing evolvability even without competitive pressure.

"The explanation is that evolvable organisms separate themselves naturally from less evolvable organisms over time simply by becoming increasingly diverse," said Kenneth O. Stanley, an associate professor at the College of Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Central Florida. He co-wrote the paper about the study along with lead author Joel Lehman, a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Texas at Austin.

The finding could have implications for the origins of evolvability in many species.

"When new species appear in the future, they are most likely descendants of those that were evolvable in the past," Lehman said. "The result is that evolvable species accumulate over time even without selective pressure."

During the simulations, the team's simulated organisms became more evolvable without any pressure from other organisms out-competing them. The simulations were based on a conceptual algorithm.

"The algorithms used for the simulations are abstractly based on how organisms are evolved, but not on any particular real-life organism," explained Lehman.

The team's hypothesis is unique and is in contrast to most popular theories for why evolvability increases.

"An important implication of this result is that traditional selective and adaptive explanations for phenomena such as increasing evolvability deserve more scrutiny and may turn out unnecessary in some cases," Stanley said.

Stanley is an associate professor at UCF. He has a bachelor's of science in engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and a doctorate in computer science from the University of Texas at Austin. He serves on the editorial boards of several journals. He has over 70 publications in competitive venues and has secured grants worth more than $1 million. His works in artificial intelligence and evolutionary computation have been cited more than 4,000 times.

Lehman has a bachelor's degree in computer science from Ohio State University and a Ph.D. in computer science from UCF. He continues his research at the University of Texas at Austin and is teaching an undergraduate course in artificial intelligence.

###

University of Central Florida: http://www.ucf.edu

Thanks to University of Central Florida for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127973/Computer_scientists_suggest_new_spin_on_origins_of_evolvability

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Harvick wins Richmond after 2-lap overtime sprint

Kevin Harvick celebrates winning the Toyota Owner's 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup series auto race at Richmond International Raceway in Richmond, Va., Saturday April 27, 2013. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

Kevin Harvick celebrates winning the Toyota Owner's 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup series auto race at Richmond International Raceway in Richmond, Va., Saturday April 27, 2013. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

Kevin Harvick celebrates winning the Toyota Owner's 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup series auto race at Richmond International Raceway in Richmond, Va., Saturday April 27, 2013. (AP Photo/Clem Britt)

Kevin Harvick is doused with champagne by his crew in Victory Lane after winning the Toyota Owner's 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup series auto race at Richmond International Raceway in Richmond, Va., Saturday April 27, 2013. (AP Photo/Clem Britt)

Kevin Harvick holds the trophy as he celebrates winning the Toyota Owner's 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup series auto race at Richmond International Raceway in Richmond, Va., Saturday April 27, 2013. (AP Photo/Clem Britt)

Tony Stewart (14) and Jimmie Johnson (48) spin out in Turn 2 during the Toyota Owner's 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup series auto race at Richmond International Raceway in Richmond, Va., Saturday April 27, 2013. (AP Photo/Jason Hirschfeld)

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) ? When the dust settled at Richmond, 'Ol Happy Harvick was the only driver smiling.

Kevin Harvick plowed through traffic on the final restart, driving from seventh to Victory Lane in a two-lap overtime sprint to the finish Saturday night at Richmond International Raceway. He did it with one of those head-scratching "Where did he come from?" drives in which everyone was just hanging on.

"Just shifted gears, hit the pedal and hoped for the best," Harvick said. "They all went high and I went low. The seas kind of parted there. They didn't get a very good restart, and my car launched.

"I was able to take it three-wide, those guys all drove it in hard, and I was able to get by the next two. I only had one to go by the time I got to the backstretch."

It was Harvick's first Sprint Cup win of the season ? he opened the year with a win in the exhibition Sprint Unlimited at Daytona ? and his 20th career victory. It put Chevrolet and Richard Childress Racing in Victory Lane, snapping a two-race winning streak by Joe Gibbs Racing.

"That was vintage Kevin Harvick right there," crew chief Gil Martin said.

Juan Pablo Montoya was trying to hold off Harvick for his first win since 2010 when the caution came out with four laps remaining.

"I was like, 'Really? Really?'" Montoya said about the caution. He pounded his fist on the steering wheel when the yellow flag waved.

Montoya left the decision to pit or stay out to crew chief Chris Heroy, who gamely tried to calm the driver and convince him he could still win the race. He brought Montoya down pit road, a decision most of the field followed as everyone traded track position for tires.

Both Montoya and Harvick took four tires, which put them sixth and seventh on the final restart. Harvick teammate Jeff Burton was the leader after Burton, Jamie McMurray and AJ Allmendinger didn't pit and stayed on the track.

When the race resumed, the first three cars on old tires couldn't hold off traffic, creating mayhem through the field. Harvick rocketed his way through the pack, dragging Clint Bowyer and Joey Logano with him.

Bowyer wound up second, Logano third and Montoya had to settle for fourth.

Montoya, who is off to a horrific start to the season with six finishes of 20th or worse in the first eight races, was comforted with his first top-10 finish of the season.

"That is what we needed," he said. "I felt like last week we had a top-five car as well, but not quite a car to win. I think this weekend, we came here and tested, and the guys did an amazing job, and we had a good car all weekend."

Tony Stewart restarted in fifth, but was bumped out of the way by Kurt Busch and faded to 18th. Stewart angrily traded bumps with Busch on the cool-down lap, even trying to force him into the wall, before the two drivers headed to the garage. Once back at their haulers Stewart and Busch shouted at each other over crew members, with Busch claiming the final two laps "were a free-for-all."

"We were hoping to be on the right sequence at the end," Busch said. "Some guys had older tires. Some guys had newer tires. We were in the mixed. A green-white-checkered at the end, it is just chaos. Cars are everywhere. People are beating and banging and shoving each other out of the way. It's pretty wild."

Burton wound up fifth to give RCR two cars in the top-five. Carl Edwards was sixth in the highest finishing Ford, and Matt Kenseth, who started from the pole and led a race-high 140 laps, was seventh for JGR.

Kenseth came into the race on the heels of stifling NASCAR sanctions after an illegal part was found in last week's race-winning engine. NASCAR essentially stripped Kenseth and JGR of everything but the trophy, but the team responded with another strong showing.

He felt he could have finished higher if not for the frantic final restart.

"Just being on the outside and (Busch) drove up through there and knocked my whole side off and put me in the marbles," Kenseth said. "Just two laps, everybody is going to go for it and go for every hole they've got."

Aric Almirola was eighth for his third consecutive top-10 finish, and Busch and Dale Earnhardt Jr. rounded out the top 10.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-04-28-NASCAR-Richmond/id-90dc9ee37b114b04b0ef66e07a5184ad

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Bangladesh building collapse death toll hits 362

SAVAR, Bangladesh (AP) ? Bangladesh rescuers on Sunday located nine people alive inside the rubble of a multi-story building that collapsed five days ago, as authorities announced they will now use heavy equipment to drill a central hole from the top to look for survivors and dead bodies.

At least 362 people are confirmed dead in the collapse of the 8-story building that housed five garment factories. The death toll is expected to rise further, but it is already the deadliest tragedy to hit Bangladesh's garment industry, which is worth $20 billion annually and a mainstay of the economy.

Wednesday's collapse and previous disasters in garment factories have focused attention on the poor working conditions of workers who toil for as little as $38 a month to produce clothing for top international brands.

Army Maj. Gen. Chowdhury Hasan Suhrawardy, the coordinator of the rescue operations, said they will try to save the nine people first by manually shifting concrete blocks with the help of light equipment such as pick axes and shovels.

"But if we fail we will start our next phase within hours," which would involve manual efforts as well as heavy equipment, including hydraulic cranes and cutters to bore a hole from the top of the collapsed building, he told reporters.

The purpose is to "continue the operation to recover both survivors and dead bodies. In this stage, we have no other choice but to use some heavy equipment. We will start it within a few hours. Manual operation and use of small equipment is not enough," he said.

The work will be carried out carefully so as not to mutilate bodies, he said. All the equipment is in place, "from a small blade to everything. We have engaged many private sector companies which supplied us equipment, even some heavy ones."

In rare good news, a female worker was pulled out alive on Sunday. Hasan Akbari, a rescuer, said when he tried to extricate a man next to the woman, "he said his body was being torn apart. So I had to let go. But God willing, we will be able to rescue him with more help very soon."

On Saturday, police took six people into custody, including three owners of two factories who were placed under arrest. Also under detention are the wife of the building owner who is on the run and two government engineers who were involved in giving approval for the building design. The owner had the approval to construct five floors but he added three more illegally.

A huge crack appeared in the building, Rana Plaza, on Tuesday, but the owner, Mohammed Sohel Rana, assured tenants it was safe to go inside. A bank and some shops on the first floor shut their premises on Wednesday after police ordered an evacuation, but managers of the garment factories on the upper floor told workers to continue their shifts.

Hours later the Rana Plaza was reduced to rubble, and most victims were crushed by massive blocks of concrete and mortar falling on them. A garment manufacturers' group said the factories in the building employed 3,122 workers, but it was not clear how many were inside it when it collapsed. About 2,500 survivors have been accounted for.

Working round-the-clock, rescuers have used bare hands and shovels, passing chunks of brick and concrete down a human chain away from the collapsed structure. On the ground, mixed in the debris were several pairs of pink cotton pants, a mud-covered navy blue sock and a pile of green uncut fabric.

The badly decomposed bodies pulled out of the rubble were kept at a makeshift morgue at the nearby Adharchandra High School before being handed over to families. Many people milled around at the school, waving photos of their missing loved ones.

Among those arrested are Bazlus Samad, managing director of New Wave Apparels Ltd., and Mahmudur Rahman Tapash, the company chairman, and Aminul Islam, chairman of Phantom Apparels Ltd.

Rana, the building owner, was a local leader of ruling Awami League's youth front. His arrest, and that of the factory owners, was ordered by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who is also the Awami League leader.

The disaster is the worst ever for the country's booming and powerful garment industry, surpassing a fire five months ago that killed 112 people and brought widespread pledges to improve worker-safety standards. But since then very little has changed in Bangladesh, where low wages have made it a magnet for numerous global brands.

Bangladesh's garment industry was the third largest in the world in 2011, after China and Italy, having grown rapidly in the past decade. The country's minimum wage is the equivalent of about $38 a month.

Among the garment makers in the building were Phantom Apparels, Phantom Tac, Ether Tex, New Wave Style and New Wave Bottoms. Altogether, they produced several million shirts, pants and other garments a year.

The New Wave companies, according to their website, make clothing for several major North American and European retailers.

Britain's Primark acknowledged it was using a factory in Rana Plaza, but many other retailers distanced themselves from the disaster, saying they were not involved with the factories at the time of the collapse or had not recently ordered garments from them.

Wal-Mart said none of its clothing had been authorized to be made in the facility, but it is investigating whether there was any unauthorized production.

__

AP writers Farid Hossain and Gillian Wong in Dhaka contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/bangladesh-building-collapse-death-toll-hits-362-054021527.html

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First Data names JPMorgan executive Bisignano as CEO

* Nadal beats fellow Spaniard Almagro 6-4 6-3 * Wins eighth Barcelona title in nine years (Updates with details, quotes) April 28 (Reuters) - Rafa Nadal became the first player to win four titles this year when he defeated fellow Spaniard Nicolas Almagro 6-4 6-3 to win the Barcelona Open for the eighth time in nine years on Sunday. Since returning from a seven-month absence with a left knee injury in February, the world number five has reached the final at all six events he has played, his Barcelona triumph adding to the victories in Sao Paulo, Acapulco and Indian Wells. "I'm very happy. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/first-data-names-jpmorgan-executive-bisignano-ceo-202603090.html

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Streaming eagles: Bird?s-eye view of life inside nest

>>> finally tonight, from humble bay, california. it's a two american bald eagles and their new eeg lets, whose ever meal and chirp are being beamed to a growing crowd of fans around the world.

>> monty spends a lot of term nursing birding back to health and this one survived a gun shot wound.

>> you can see how that wing wants to droop.

>> but these days, he and his staff and nearly 300,000 fans online, can't keep their eyes off the computer screen . two nesting eagles with their two new chicks born this week.

>> one of the things that's nice about it is it really demonstrates that the endangered species act works.

>> in fact, since the passage of that act four decades ago, the stretch that's seen the numbers of nesting eagles rise to nearly 10,000 today, this is the first pair to homestead on the shores of humble bay. a made for life couple. she's the one with the single birt feather, but mom and dad equally generous at feeding time .

>> as you're watching, you'll see they're bringing in all kinds of fish and also the occasional rat.

>> whether you live in the city or country, it's rare to see even a single bald eagle , but your chances of observing a nesting couple raising an eagle or two are just about nil unless you're following an eagle cam. there have been others. one in iowa, one in new jersey.

>> whoever would have thought that years ago when we were poisoning our fields with ddt that these eagles could come back in such a short period of time.

>> but this one atop a 100 foot tall doug lis fir is streaming an intimate a view from an eagle's life has been seen.

>> they'll still be with their parents after that because they have a steep learning curve .

>> right now, it's just the parents doing the hunting and the baby sitting and the chicks and their hundreds of thousands of fans can't get enough of it. mike taibbi , nbc news, los angeles .

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653381/s/2b41222c/l/0Lvideo0Bmsnbc0Bmsn0N0Cid0C51689410A/story01.htm

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Fight against terror takes pals to the White House (The Arizona Republic)

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CSN: Carlos Ruiz returns from suspension

NEW YORK ? Catcher Carlos Ruiz was back in the Phillies? lineup Sunday after serving a 25-game suspension for testing positive for a banned stimulant late last season.

To make room for Ruiz on the roster, the Phillies designated catcher Humberto Quintero for assignment. Team officials debated whether to keep Quintero or Erik Kratz as the backup to Ruiz. Ultimately they decided on Kratz, who filled in while Ruiz was injured late last season and got the bulk of the reps while Ruiz was out this month.

The Phils have 10 days to dispose of Quintero?s contract. He could be released, traded or outrighted to Triple A if he clears waivers. Quintero had previously agreed to go to the minors for 45 days. Phillies officials are hopeful that he clears waivers and can remain in the system as depth.

?We?ll see how it plays out,? assistant GM Scott Proefrock said. ?But there?s a chance he could still be with us and, selfishly, we hope he is.?

Manager Charlie Manuel wasted no time getting Ruiz in the lineup. He was holding down the No. 5 spot in the batting order between Michael Young and Domonic Brown. Ryan Howard got a day off with Mets lefty Jonathon Niese on the mound. The Phils countered with lefty Cole Hamels.

Ruiz, 34, had a career year in 2012. He hit .325 (50 points above his career average) with 16 homers and 68 RBIs in 372 at-bats. He blossomed into a middle-of-the-order hitter and made his first all-star team.

Kratz and Quintero combined to hit just .209 with four doubles, two homers and nine RBIs while Ruiz was out. Their combined on-base percentage was just .242 and they had 21 strikeouts and four walks.

Needless to say, the Phils will welcome Ruiz? bat ? even if there?s a leveling off after last year?s across-the-board career-highs.

Ruiz was asked whether he believed he could be the same hitter he was last season.

?I feel great,? Ruiz said. ?For me, that?s very important. I?m healthy and we?ll see what happens.?

As far back as early spring training, Ruiz has not answered specific questions about his use of Adderall last season. Adderall is used to treat attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder. Ruiz was using it without a therapeutic use exemption, hence the suspension.

Ruiz declined to say Sunday if he?d taken the necessary steps that would allow him to continue to take the drug.

?I don?t want to say anything about that,? he said. ?It?s all in the past.

?It?s a nice feeling that everything is over. I?m real happy to come back.?

Source: http://www.csnphilly.com/baseball-philadelphia-phillies/ruiz-back-lineup-phillies-hope-keep-quintero

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